Rima Hassan was born to a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother in a refugee camp in Aleppo, Syria, leaving her stateless at birth. The granddaughter of Palestinians expelled from the Galilee village of Al-Birwa during the Nakba of 1948, she arrived in France as a child and has since built her political career around the conviction that the struggle for Palestinian liberation belongs as much in Europe as in Palestine.
Hassan belongs to a new generation of leaders in the Palestinian diaspora who are unwilling to soften their convictions to suit Western sensibilities. It is precisely because of this stance that the French state has deployed the full weight of its institutional machinery against her. Since entering office, 16 judicial proceedings have been filed against Hassan, the majority relating to charges of “apology for terrorism,” all concerning her remarks on Israel-Palestine.
The terrorism-related cases largely stem from Hassan’s public defense of the right of peoples under foreign occupation to resist, a principle recognized in UN resolutions. (The latest, for which she is currently standing trial, revolves around her sharing a post on X quoting Kōzō Okamoto, a Japanese militant who took part in an attack on Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport in 1972 that killed 26 people. The quote read: “As long as there is oppression, resistance will not only be a right, but a duty.”) At the same time, she has consistently described the killing of civilians on October 7 as a war crime and condemned the taking of hostages.
Thirteen of the cases against her have already been dismissed. Hassan has nevertheless been summoned by police six times, spending a total of more than 45 hours in custody or interrogation. She has attended each summons without invoking her parliamentary immunity, in solidarity with ordinary citizens facing similar prosecutions without the same protections. During her recent detention in April, false claims that she had been found in possession of drugs were leaked to the media, generating a flurry of news reports before toxicology results — already in the prosecutor’s possession — cleared her completely.
Europe
Europe community on dbzer0. Intended to be a place to discuss European news, politics, or just general topics from a European perspective. Since this is on dbzer0 expect the community to lean more leftist-anarchist but a wide range of views are accepted here (within reason).
Rules:
1. No Bigotry or Hate Speech
Any forms of Homophobia, Transphobia, Queerphobia, Racism, or Ableism will be met with swift and harsh action and will not be tolerated here whatsoever. Bigots will be banned immediately on-sight. This includes apologia of it.
Trying to be politely or intellectually bigoted i.e. "Just asking questions" won't be tolerated.
2. No Zionism
Any forms of Zionism or Zionist rhetoric will not be tolerated here, this includes Zionist apologia, accusations of antisemitism towards anti-Zionists, or blatant denial or downplaying of the genocide towards Palestinians. Any attempt to uphold or prop up the IHRA definition of antisemitism, will be treated as Zionism.
Anyone engaging in Pro-Zionist sentiment or apologia will be actioned in accordance with its severity.
Note: Trying to find loopholes or whataboutery to see what is or isn't genocide denial or Zionism will be treated as a violation of this rule. Don't test us.
3. Stay Civil
Please maintain civil discourse in the community. Do not engage in arguments with others, name-calling, or insults. Note that calling out bigotry or Zionism is not considered an insult. In heated arguments users are encouraged to or even required to disengage failure to do so will result in mod action.
4. No Misinformation
Spreading of misinformation intentionally in this community is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Spreading misinformation hurts the credibility of the community and can mislead people sometimes in dangerous ways. Users who intentionally post misinformation as articles, comment answers, or in attempt to win arguments will be actioned swiftly.
Note: This includes Russian and Chinese propaganda. Users with a history of such posting will be banned on sight.
5. No AI Content
Please do not post articles or content primarily created using generative AI. Generative AI content may contain misinformation or be lower quality and thus is discouraged. Posts and comments featuring it will be removed. However this community does not allow or tolerate Anti-AI trolling or hostility and users who engage in such behavior will be actioned for it, additionally Anti-AI trolling violates Rule 3 and often Rule 4 so it is generally unacceptable already.
Note: Rules 1 & 2 may be subject to preemptive mod action due to their severity, and they apply to a user's entire post history. Not just this community.
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Sadly there is still a lot of work to be done!